


The Selfish Rose

by WhiteRoseRed



Series: RedRoseWhite's Twitfic Fairytales [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, RedRoseWhite's Twitfics, fairytale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:13:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26023222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteRoseRed/pseuds/WhiteRoseRed
Summary: Love takes form on Earth and has to find a way to repay her debt.Second in a series of fairytales written on Twitter, then collected on AO3.
Series: RedRoseWhite's Twitfic Fairytales [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888828
Kudos: 2





	The Selfish Rose

[ ](https://imgbb.com/)

One summer day, Love took the form of a grey squirrel. She ran up and down the trees, ate berries from the briar, and made friends with the birds. Everywhere she ran, there was peace. She bounded along a forest path and was caught up suddenly in a snare. She twisted and squeaked in the air, and a girl who had been gathering mushrooms came upon her.

"Poor little thing," the girl said, and took out her pocket-knife and set Love free. Love did not know this girl. Her eyes were too close together and her nose was misshapen. Her mouth was odd and her body was graceless. She belonged to Longing, not Love, but now Love was in her debt. She could not return to her true form until the debt was cleared.

The little squirrel bounded back up the path to the weaver's house at the edge of town. The weaver had a magnificent garden to make her dyes, and the crowning jewel was her crimson roses.

"Friend," said the squirrel to the rose, "May I have some of your beauty?" "No," said the rose. So the squirrel went to the friendly clematis and took some of her beauty instead. One by one, the stately peonies and the velvet delphinium, the clever foxglove and the shy bleeding heart gave some of their beauty to Love.

She went to the girl's window and by moonlight, poured the beauty of the garden over her. But it was not quite enough for Love to claim her, she was still trapped. She scampered back to the weaver's rose.

"Rose," Love said, "what do you see in your days?"

"I see the garden, and the garden wall. I see the wind and the clouds and the rain. I see the weaver and her children. I see the insects and the toads."

"How boring, how tiny & small," Love said. "Wouldn't you also like to see the ways of people? Give some of your beauty to me and you will see through the eyes of those I have claimed."

The rose took a moment to think. She saw the peony blushing and the delphinium wave in the wind, awake and alive.

"All right," she said. With the beauty from the rose, Love was able to claim the girl who had saved her, now comely and fair of face. Love took her true form, free to move across heaven and earth, and for all time after that, roses were the eyes of love in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> I like to imagine that they are the stories that the original character Cerryn from my Star Wars fic, [Sweetness](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23748004/chapters/57035197), would have in the books in her room.


End file.
